Angel's Wings
by El loopy
Summary: AU. He was the one I waited for, the angel known as Gabriel, but a fallen angel is something to fear. Oneshot.


**Rather AU. It was just something that came to me and I needed to write. I had no one in particular in mind for the pairing. Use who you want.**

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Angel's wings

She waited for him.

It seemed she had always been waiting for him.

Time stretched on in never ending line of seconds, minutes, hours, all disproportionate to the real time.

Life slowed and she anticipated its end. She just had to wait.

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Gabriel. He had appeared to her in a white light, with feathered wings of snow touched by gold, strong and soft adorning each side. She must have loved him then immediately. He had come with a message and he did not stay long, and the moment he was gone she yearned for his return.

She had been waiting for him ever since.

One of the higher angels, he would only descend to the level of the Earth, where she worked, if it were necessary - if he were acting on command.

He returned, on a business excuse, but she did not care. He sat and spoke to her and spent time with her far beyond what his duty demanded. She cherished every moment of being with him, and when he left she felt empty again. She missed his deep brown eyes and his windswept hair, and the way the light reflected off his wings and caught the gold so it shone deep and pure. She waited for his return hopefully, knowing he would probably never come back.

The next time he came she looked up from her chores to see him standing in front of her. All he did was open his arms and she stepped into his powerful embrace, at once feeling complete and whole as his arms held her to him. His wings folded around them and enveloped them both in a gentle white light as she felt the soft feathers caress the bare skin of her arms and face. There was only them together and no others and she felt more secure and safe than anywhere else, any time else. When his lips met hers there was no explosion – the feeling was too violent to survive in a space made from angel's wings. When their lips met the feeling was of total peace and submission. Absolute certainty.

She loved it each time he came down to see her. He took time off to see her and personally dealt with each assignment in her quarter so that he might see her more. They were so close that when the change started she noticed it, before anyone else. She disregarded it. She put it down to how busy he was, how tired he was…anything that might explain what was happening to him. Nevertheless, with each visit his face was darker, his features sharper…crueller, each kiss fiercer and the space made by the wings became more dangerous. She did not know what was wrong, what was changing as the purity of her Gabriel became slowly more corrupted.

She started to hear rumours, rumours of uprisings in the heavenly realms. Her heart would flutter at the implications. She would become anxious for him as she waited for news. She tried to ignore the whispering voices in her head that pointed at his guilt. She was determined to be loyal and trust him.

The final time he visited she knew from the noise. He crashed to the ground in a flurry of dust and feathers and she ran to him.

As he lifted his head she stepped back in shock. Dark circles ringed his eyes and the innocent light brown had blackened to glint sharply. As he pushed himself to his feet she realised what the greatest contrast was, the thing that cut her deep to the core. His wings lay in tatters, severed near the bone, shredded into ribbons. Bloodied clumps of once white feathers clung desperately to what was left.

"Gabriel…" she whispered despairingly.

"It's Sylar," he snarled back and glanced up at the sky from whence he'd dropped. A change of name. No longer the same person.

"Fallen angel," she muttered in horror.

He looked at her and sneered and she could no longer see the one she'd fallen in love with. Desperately she twisted her head, searching for help but he was on his feet and his hands grabbed her arms so tightly she gasped in pain.

His grip twisted and he pulled her forcefully to himself and she found herself locked into his gaze as their faces came within inches of each other but she found no comfort in the closeness as she once had but only a terrible fear that clawed at her insides and froze her in terror. All she wanted to do was escape but his arms held her like a vice to the spot.

She no longer struggled futilely against him but stood in terror, unable to react, every muscle tense as she waited for him to make his next move. She waited for him now as she always had been. She waited for him to respond in those few moments like she'd wasted her life waiting for him…a life that she realised was about to be taken from her as his eyes took on a strange glint and he reached out to press a finger to her delicate forehead.

"There are no angel's wings for you to draw comfort from now," he whispered with a sadistic delight tainting the once beautiful lilt.

Then he made the first incision and the world once enclosed in the safety of blazing white dissolved into red pain and darkness.


End file.
